Filtering In
by OpheliacAngel
Summary: Hayley could have eloped with Jackson. Hope needs an aunt like Rebekah though, or even maybe a mother like Rebekah. Written for Yuletide for shopfront.


**Title:** Filtering In

 **Author:** OpheliacAngel

 **Pairing:** Rebekah/Hayley

 **Genres:** Romance/Family

 **Rating:** Teen

 **Summary:** Hayley could have eloped with Jackson. Hope needs an aunt like Rebekah though, or even maybe a mother like Rebekah.

 **A/N:** Written for Yuletide for shopfront. Canon Divergence for Post Season 2, but no spoilers.

 **Soundtrack:** Digital Sons' 'Long Way Down'

* * *

 _~I_ _'ve taken myself out these shoes_

 _You_ _'re walking down this road now_

 _There_ _'s just nothing left to prove_

 _See now that I believe I_ _'ve been wrong_

 _But lately you_ _'re the darkness seems to turn this light on~_

* * *

Hayley could have eloped with Jackson. There was every opportunity and every desire to take what had been promised her since birth. She could have lived with her pack and been a family with them, a queen to them. She could have lived out in the bayou where she once considered to feel most at home, raising Hope the way she had always wanted to. Jackson didn't care about her past or the wrongs she committed, about the people she killed and the girl she had become. He only cared about creating a home for her and Hope, only cared about protecting them, loving them. It would be stupid for her to reject that, foolish for her to keep running.

Yet there was one more place she felt she had to run to.

She had never been one for going against her instincts. Her heart didn't tell her to run to Jackson even though that seemed the most logical path, but it didn't tell her to stay in her city palace with Klaus and Elijah either, that palace the setting for fear and confinement and a world that Hope would never truly be able to relax in. Jackson was running toward the remnants of her family and Klaus was running toward danger and uncertainty. Hayley knew she could keep kidding herself, _should_ keep kidding herself.

Yet every night she laid in bed with Hope and thought about Rebekah. True, the vampire was a Mikaelson, which meant Hayley would still likely be running and hiding from Rebekah's enemies and the enemies of her brothers, but she trusted Rebekah more than she had ever trusted anyone before. She also believed there was life for her and Hope with Rebekah, even if they hid from Klaus and Elijah and every enemy of the Mikaelsons' for all of Hope's life.

Rebekah had kept Hope alive for this long, hadn't she? Hayley had once trusted Rebekah to be the only one qualified on Earth to watch over Hope and protect her and raise her with a good heart for as long as need be. She didn't want to tear Hope away from that love, deprive her of it like Hayley had to deprive Hope of her own for those months.

She also wanted happiness so badly, not having to run anymore and not having to pretend that she could achieve that happiness being queen of the bayou or even of New Orleans. Putting Hope's and her own needs aside, no matter the damage Rebekah had done throughout her life she deserved to be happy too. Hayley _had_ to be the one to give Rebekah the family she had always wanted because she couldn't create it herself.

Hayley had to be the one to put an end to all this mess and chaos and create something _good_ out of it.

Rebekah once told her that they had to stick together. Hayley believed it to be a passing comment at first, but slowly she started to recognize the depth and surety of it as not only a statement but a fact, a comforting one she could cling to.

 _Us girls have got to stick together. Because when the going gets tough, when you don_ _'t have family to rely on, there's_ just _us girls._

No one would know she had escaped with Rebekah. No one would ever suspect; it wasn't even a realistic course of action. Even if Klaus and Elijah found out then Rebekah could hide them, she had hid Hope for long enough. Hayley could have everything she ever wanted if she held her breath and jumped and didn't think about logic or sense. _This_ was instinct. When she closed her eyes she saw Rebekah holding Hope securely in her arms and swinging her, watched herself laughing so hard that she doubled over from the force of it, witnessed just how bright and peaceful and filled with love the world could be.

Hayley could have eloped with Jackson. She could have had the family promised to her from birth, could have been queen, could have waited years and years for Elijah to step up or for Klaus to show himself as worthy of being Hope's father. She could have traded happiness for titles and a false sense of security. But then her heart got tangled up with her most basest of instincts.

So she eloped with Rebekah instead.

They find a cute two-story house in the suburbs far away from New Orleans and they _live._ They take Hope everywhere, to the playground and grocery store and even when they go shopping. Rebekah's infinite wealth goes toward Hayley's jean habit and she buys Hayley dresses that she never would have worn before, short summer dresses that Rebekah remarks show off her legs. They lounge around in their huge backyard and they eat strawberries and watermelon and tickle Hope until she's squealing with glee and Hayley can see Rebekah as she was meant to be, smiling and glowing and being a mother, away from all the family drama and Klaus' centuries of abuse and relationships that go nowhere. Rebekah tells Mikaelson family stories late into the night and they laugh and drink and dance and _live_. They eat pancakes with chocolate chips and leftover cake for breakfast and don't play by any rules and center each day around Hope and they _live._ Just like that. No looking behind their backs. No doubt.

Nothing missing when Rebekah wraps her arms around Hayley when they're twirling in the kitchen one night and kisses her. Nothing missing when Hayley stops going through the motions, when she pushes Rebekah back against the counter and lifts up Rebekah's dress and shoves her mouth against Rebekah's and devours her. No hiding. No shame. No faking it anymore. Then they share the same bed and Hayley wakes up in the morning with Hope sleeping between them and Rebekah's blonde hair covering her face and Hayley brushing it away. The two most important people in her world.

She watches Rebekah until she stirs and her eyes open and catch Hayley's, and Hayley smiles back. Her heart bursts in her chest when Rebekah's hand reaches to rest protectively over Hope's heart and Hayley puts her hand right next to hers. They kiss and not once does Hayley forget how lucky she is, for an original vampire to love her like she knows Rebekah does.

Not once does she forget how this was so close to never happening. Or forget when Rebekah breathed against her neck a dozen thank yous.

Hope needs an aunt like Rebekah, or even maybe a mother like Rebekah, and now she has one.

Hayley needs Rebekah too.

* * *

 _~Maybe here_ _'s a place where I'm fine_

 _Maybe there_ _'s a word that just makes everything alright_

 _Trying to break free from these chains_

 _And thinking of the times when you said everything_ _'s okay~_

* * *

Rebekah's in the backyard building a swing set and Hayley picks Hope up from her highchair and brings her outside. The original vampire senses her coming and meets her halfway, talking about her other plans for their backyard. Hayley hears something about a pool and jacuzzi but it filters in one ear and out the other, not because she doesn't care but because Rebekah is so beautiful and real and _here._

Hope smiles at Rebekah's glowing face, her tiny hands reaching for the Mikaelson sibling.

Hayley brings Hope closer to her aunt, brushing a strand of her hair out of her face and leaning forward to kiss Rebekah. _Yep,_ she thinks, _this is what peace feels like. This isn_ _'t a dream._ She surveys the almost completed swing set, can't wait until Hope can use it.

Rebekah catches her eye. "Yes, it's perfect, isn't it?"

All Hayley can think is that there is so much happiness and joy filtering in and she can't possibly take it all in at once, but she can. And she does.

 **FIN**


End file.
